Economic Reform

CCAG Celebrates 40 years of grassroots action

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Connecticut Citizen Action Group marks forty years of putting people before corporate profits with an anniversary celebration to be held November 18th in Meriden. The event will include the awarding of the annual Nancy Benedict Social Justice Award and a silent auction. To find out more or to RSVP online, click here.

March Forward for Fairness

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Big Banks are Getting Richer at Our Expense. Elected leaders are calling for shared sacrifice.

Bank of America -- Connecticut's largest bank -- paid virtually no state income taxes last year. They practically stopped lending to local small businesses, stunting job growth.And they have done nothing to help local communities afflicted by the foreclosure crisis.

Aren't you tired of big banks profiting without pitching in? Then join us and take action at a Bank of America branch near you:

When: Saturday, March 12 at 10:00 AM.

Where: Demonstrations are planned at 5 Bank of America branches --

  • New Haven: the Long Wharf branch at 250 Sargent Dr
  • Middletown: the Main Street branch at 267 Main Street
  • Norwich: the route 82 branch at 590 West Main Street
  • Bridgeport: the North End branch at 2500 Main Street
  • Waterbury: the Chase & Cooke branch at 992 Cooke Street

How: Bring your homemade signs and tell Bank of America --

  • Pay Your Fair Share to Grow Our Economy!
  • Bailouts are for Jobs, Not Bonuses for Bankers!
  • No More Dragging Down Our Property Values!
  • Renegotiate Mortgages and Keep Families in their Homes!

Tell Senator Lieberman: No Tax Breaks for Millionaires

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Did you know that Senator Lieberman supports tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans over real relief for working families?

Tell Senator Lieberman to support a FAIR tax cut. We need a plan to address the jobs crisis, not tax cuts that are inefficient and ineffective.

With Congress preparing to debate the future of the Bush-era tax cuts, Senator Lieberman made a stop at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce to express his support for cutting taxes for the richest 2 percent of taxpayers:

“The more money we leave in private hands, the quicker our economic recovery will be. And that means I will do everything I can to make sure Congress extends the so-called Bush tax cuts for another year, and takes action to prevent the estate tax from rising back to where it was.”

Senator Lieberman is just plain wrong. [Click here to tell him.] Additional tax cuts for the rich are unaffordable and inefficient. Cutting taxes for the wealthiest among us will cost $40 billion in 2011, $830 billion over 10 years and up to $1 trillion after factoring in interest. This money should be used to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, to create jobs, and to reduce the deficit.

The Congressional Budget Office examined 11 strategies for creating jobs and boosting our economy. The CBO found that of those strategies studied, tax cuts for the wealthiest finished dead last. Middle-income and working class families are more likely to spend the tax savings they receive. [Rich Americans Save Tax Cuts Instead of Spending, Moody's Says]

The priority should be to provide economic relief to the vast majority of Americans who need it. Working families and the middle class are hurting in this economy and need help now.

Extending the Bush-era tax cuts is yet another attack on working families. Many of the same members of Congress who were against extending unemployment benefits support of tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

Tell Senator Lieberman to support a FAIR tax cut. We need a plan to address the jobs crisis, not tax cuts that are inefficient and ineffective.

2010 Legislative Highlights

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Toxic Chemical Reform

Chemical Innovations Institute Gets Green Light

Promising to help Connecticut move beyond the one-chemical-at-a-time approach to toxic chemical regulation, House Bill 5126 establishes the mission and the Board of Directors of a Chemical Innovations Institute (CII) for research and education in green technologies. The program will be housed at UConn Health Center but will operate largely on outside funding. It will protect the environment and the citizens of CT while also constituting an economic development opportunity for the state.

Take Action NOW to pass the Consumer Protection Act!

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The House of Representatives passed the final version of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on June 30. (See how your Representative voted here.)

Next up, the Senate will have an all-important procedural vote on the bill tomorrow, July 15. This is the last major hurdle to seeing financial reform! To get through it, we need 60 Senators to vote "YES."

The bill is a major advance over the status quo. Despite the millions of dollars the banks spent to weaken it, and despite the thousands of lobbyists on their payroll, it represents a huge step in the right direction for folks on Main Street. If the Senate rejects it, we're left with no changes for the foreseeable future.

The Truth About Financial Reform

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If you've watched any local television lately, you have probably seen an advertisement from the "Committee for Truth in Politics" that is anything but true. Americans for Financial Reform responded to the advertisement in a recent e-mail to its members:

You may have seen this ad from the "Committee for Truth in Politics" on TV that claims that financial reform is really a $4 trillion bank bailout - a claim that doesn't resemble any truth, as Factcheck.org explains. And where did this group get the idea to say black is white and up is down? From a man named Frank Luntz.

Frank Luntz is a pollster for many of the corporations that created our financial meltdown, including Merrill Lynch and bear Sterns. This is the same Luntz whose health insurance reform talking points - on how to best stir up fear and confusion in the American people to derail reform and protect insurance industry profits - showed up across the web and in the mouths of lawmakers. So it shouldn't be surprising that he's at it again, this time writing a 17-page memo on how to kill financial reform.

Learn more by reading Americans for Financial Reform Director Heather Booth's response on the Huffington Post.

Fat Cat Tuesday: Fight For The Change We Voted For

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Connecticut Citizen Action Group
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Dear Friend,

Next Tuesday, February 16, CCAG and HCAN will stand up for the change we voted for. Join our Fat Cat Tuesday March in Hartford against the opponents of reform!

In 2008, our country voted for change. We wanted health care reform because we know over 42,000 people die in America every year for lack of health care, and over 50% of our personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills. We wanted financial reforms that would stop greedy financial institutions from plunging us into the Second Great Depression. We wanted the wars of occupation to end and to rebuild our own country’s infrastructure. We wanted good jobs at good wages and action on climate change for our children and grandchildren. Collectively, we knocked on doors; made phone calls; cajoled our family, friends and neighbors and literally pulled strangers out of their homes to vote for change.

Members of Congress John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes and Chris Murphy teaming up with Senator Chris Dodd have worked hard to deliver the change we voted for. Unfortunately, health insurance companies, financial institutions, the US Chamber of Commerce and other big corporate interests are sabotaging our reform efforts and stopping the change we worked so hard for.

On Fat Tuesday (Tuesday, February 16) we will march against the opponents of change in downtown Hartford. We will gather at 5:00 PM at Christ Church Cathedral, 45 Church Street, Hartford (corner of Main and Church Streets across from the old G. Fox Building) for a short program and begin our march at 5:30 PM. Please join us to tell the health insurance companies and the corporate interests to stop opposing the change America needs!

Please sign up for the event by clicking here. For more information, contact me at murphy@ccag.net or (860) 995-3389.

Yours in the fight for the change we need,

John Murphy
CCAG Political Director

P.S. If you don’t think we need health care reform in Connecticut, please watch the hundreds of underinsured and uninsured patients desperately seeking health services last week in Hartford click here to view it now.
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Our Financial Security - Take Action Today!

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CCAG is committed to our financial security, and is partnered with Americans for Financial Reform to push for the change we need in light of the global economic crisis.

The financial industry is spending millions to block the creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Please join CCAG and help us stand up to these big special interests.

In his first State of the Union address, President Obama reinforced his ambitious agenda to fix the economy and enact financial reform, including measures to hold Big Banks accountable for their reckless actions that led to our financial crisis and the loss of millions of jobs:

"The House has passed financial reform...And the lobbyists are already trying to kill it. Well, we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back."

Take Action Now! Click here to write to your Senators and tell them to stand with you. Tell them to hold the Big Banks accountable for bringing down the economy!

After you've written, be sure to call Senator Dodd at (202) 224-3121. Thank him for supporting the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) without weakening states' ability to protect consumers and to please continue to fight for an independent CFPA.

Click on the read more link below to learn about Americans for Financial Reform.

The Move Your Money Project

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Learn more about moving your money from a "too big to fail" bank to a local community bank at the Move Your Money Project website: http://moveyourmoney.info.

Support the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Without Weaking State Protections

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Why do we need State consumer protection laws, once we have the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA)?

States must be able to address problems within their borders, before they become nation-wide problems. Purely local problems do not need national legislation. These issues are best dealt with at the State and local levels.

Won’t this result in the CFPA and the States issuing rules on the same topic?

No. Historically, the States have stepped in where Federal policymakers have failed to establish adequate protections. The CFPA is intended to avert such failures in the future. If the CFPA does its job, it will ensure that consumers are adequately protected, and States will not feel compelled to go further. State legislators are subject to the same pressures as all other policy makers, and they do not seek out reasons to push back against the lending industry. Keeping alive the States’ traditional role will provide a backstop against lapses at the federal level and extra assurance that consumers will be appropriately protected. This will also incent industry to cooperate with efforts by the CFPA to issue protections that are appropriately robust and effective.

Are there other advantages to retaining the State’s traditional role in policymaking?

State laws responding to local problems provide useful models and data points for policymakers in other States and at the Federal level. This keeps our policies vibrant and innovative, and enables Federal policymakers to develop best practices based on the experiences of the States.

Click here to continue reading two news clips about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

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